GSC’s Bakemonogatari line has been a story of success, they made distinctive and elaborate figures,  based on the Blu Ray or DVD covers of Bakemonogatari and Nisemonogatari.

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJ4E8BXc6cA

So far I only had bought 2 of these figures, I picked the figures I liked the most, based on visual appeal and character preference, Shinobu and Kanbaru. A recent addition was the figure I’ll review today. It’s about time that they make a good figure of Koyomi.

Tsukihi was released on the 7th of April this year, the figure is scaled 1/8 with an overall height of 23 mm. She was sculpted by Hiroshi who made a number of figures with a distinctive look.
GSC also offered a second color variant of her that featured the look from the anime with different colors and pattern. I prefered her in pink so I received this copy a few days ago.

What first meets the eye is the pipe construction, the base of this figure. It is a perfect model of pipe framework for kids, Americans call it jungle gym, everything was already assembled and looks quite clean. Everything follows the theme of the so popular summer festivals in Japan, the pipes are equipped with different fox mask and also one demon is hanging down.

The figure of Araragi Tsukihi is a real eyecatcher, not only because of the base, the figure is eceptionally well done and everything together creates a certain, convincing atmosphere.

Hair & Face

In the anime Tsukihi changes her hairstyle in a very regular manner, this figure presents her with a pretty bob, in my humble opinion it suits her the best. Her hair is black and shows nicely sharp yet rounded strands. As member of the Araragi family she has an ahoge.
At the backside the hair is really round, she looks a bit like Kafuka from Zetsubo Sensei.

As decoration for her hair, she has a sunny side up egg, which looks surprisingly fitting at the side of her head, when desired there is the option for it to be exchanged with a fox mask.

I’m in love with her innocent expression, Tsukihi has such a beautiful shaped face with great details, such as blush marks, a cute stubs nose and a small mouth. The depth of her eyes is incredible with this spot of reflection the level of detail is simply amazing. There is a little sadness in her eyes, a feel of thoughtful sadness, it gives her a lot of personality and appeal.

Outfit & Body

Putting her short temper aside, Tsukihi is a somewhat traditional person and appears very  feminine in a pure sense, especially in comparison with her boar like sister, Karen. She is always wearing these Japanese clothes from a period long ago. The Yukata is crafted carefully with all the €convincing details like inlays, wrinkles or the wide sleeves or the big obi that ends in a huge red ribbon. Who can tell the differences between a Yukata and a Kimono?

The Yukata here is colored in a nice bright pink color with a flower ornament pattern printed on it, on some areas a red Phoenix and some feathers can also been seen. This particular dress is a bit short to do climbing exercises. A character like her doesn’t need to look sexy. Compared to Bakemonogatari, Nisemonogatari still has smart dialog, but is quite heavy on the fanservice side involving the younger girls. So of course Tsukihi is ought shows at least a bit of her legs and how her dress tightly wraps around her butt, magnificent sculptwork.

The sculpting of the figures body is done very well, starting from the articulation, to the body who is still in development with the long slender legs this figure is convincing, even her toes are nice and look lively. These are some high soles under her feet.

Tsukihi is an enchanting, beautiful girl who would make every teenage boy happy, my fancy regarding female anime characters goes more into the direction of Hanekawa san.

Base

Putting her on the base is rather simple, Tsukihi grabs onto one of the upper pipes , the other hand has a little dent, where one of the upward pointing pipes slides in. The pulled up leg also helps with balancing the figure. GSC provided a little support for one foot for additional safety, but it works without it, even bumping against the desk won’t make her fall.

The pipe framework would be able to stand on it’s own, but for a more complete look, a floor base in the shape of a sunny side up egg, has been provided, unfortunately it is just plain white. It appears like a last minute idea, a more elaborate texture on it would be better.

However, you don’t have to use it and it won’t make the figure look bad in any way.

Final Words

“write slave, write!” So lets wrap this up now. Tsukihi is an amazing figure, she shows an interesting pose and has a beautiful outfit. My favorite part about the figure is the detailed face, it is beautiful and has a strong expression that shows personality. Also a cool base is another convincing part of Good Smile Company’s Araragi Tsukihi.

Overall it is an awesome, high quality figure ^^

Another review is availabe at Reflective Boundary and Hobby Holic

Another amazing figure that I received in the first months of this year, 2014 has been really great in terms of figures. Numbers don’t mean much, but this is my current Top 4 ranking.

1. Maeda Keiji
2. Araragi Tsukihi
3. Super Sonico PKG ver.
4. Sallya

Next time I’ll probably review Alleyne or a crazy Idol.

Todays review is about Kanbaru Suruga from the popular anime Bakemonogatari.

I was always interested in getting this certain figure, but I didn’t order her back in 2011,
the year she was released. With Senjougahara as spearhead most of GSC’s figures from the Bakemonogatari line – up are super popular and so the figures rise in price on the aftermarket.

After a lot of thinking if I really wanted the Kanbaru figure, I couldn’t wait any longer and gort her from a friendly American, who never unpacked his Kanbaru. Not that I can really understand, but I’m happy that I got a new, unopened Kanbaru. I’ve recently seen what sick things some people do things with their figures, so I got a bit cautious of used figures :p

Kanbaru Suruga is an 1/8 scaled figure that was manufactured by GSC, after the sculpt of Tokunaga Hironori. The release happend on July 28, 2011, one day before my birthday actually. The retail price was 9333 Yen, I paid 135 $ (13872 Yen). Quite a lot more *cough* *cough*

All of GSC’s Bakemonogatari figures are based on the Blu-Ray/DVD Covers, and Kanbaru is no exception, she’s an elaborate figure, Kanbaru has an impressive base, that shows her sitting in between towers of yaoi literature with an satisfied evil expression of a smile on her face.

In the anime Kanbaru is one of the girls the main character coincidentally mets. Kanbaru is actually into girls, even though she doesn’t bother to flirt with Araragi and reads yaoi related literature. She was a bit scary at first and I actually hated her for butchering Araragi, but in the Nadeko Snake story, she became a friendly girl, still a bit perverted, but likeable. She’s not that much focused on as others in the show, but Kanbaru definitely made an impression.

Hair & Face

The figure has a tomboyish short hair style, it has rounded edges and is colored in dark with a blueish tint. A bit hidden underneath she has quite strong eyebrows. Kanbaru’s face has a nice tone and a soft looking shape. The half closed eyes create a nice expression and some kind of atmosphere, under her eyes some subtle color for the rosy cheeks has been applied like they are often shown in anime. On her mouth Kanbaru Suruga shows a satisfied wide smile, Im actually not a fan of GSC’s red lined mouths, but here it is rather acceptable and looks good.

The short hair with the bushy eyebrows and half closed eyes gives this  figure a kind of subtle wild sex appeal, I really like that about her. From the right her face looks best, from the left the stronger jaw and chin give her a slightly monkey like look, like in the art she is based on.

Outfit & Body

In contrast to the sexy look on her face Kanbaru’s outfit is the innocent standard uniform of her High School, like Hanekawa and Hitagi are wearing. Yeah it’s a summer uniform with some nice shading and realistic wrinkles, but it is nothing really fancy actually. Kanbaru has some extra details, like her bandaged arm or the basketball sport-shoes. Under the purple skirt she is wearing black biker shorts instead of panties.

The figure has a nicely articulated pose, she is sitting on her boobs books in a very relaxed manner. It is cute how she supports her tilted head with one arm, the other arm with that she holds a book, these little fingers looks quite realistic with these joints. Ah yes the book isn’t fixed to her hand.

Kanbaru Suruga is a normal healthy High School girl, there are no parts on her body that stand out especially, maybe her chest is more developed than Hitagi’s. Sitting figures have their own appeal, in terms of display and photography options they offer many possibilities. In most cases such figures can be taken off their base and placed on different things or on different places.

Base

The base of this figure is quite awesome and elaborately made, it shows Kanbaru sitting on her throne of books on green floor which slightly resembles grass. It consist of five pillars and as little accesoires there is also a potted plant and a basketball, who find their place on the base.

The different sized books are very detailed with several bookmarks and clean transitions between the white pages and the cover. A cool figure on a cool base.

Final Word

Kanbaru is a great figure, I should have made this purchase a lot earlier, but no I had to wait and payed the aftermarket price, I nevertheless think she’s worth the money. On first sight she might appear a bit unimposing on her quite elaborate throne of books, but the interesting pose and cute ,bold face expession are something that make her special. This is no T & A figure, but it’s something really nice to be put on ones shelf. Im quite satisfied with Kanbaru chan and her pretty face, she’s actually nearly as nice as Oshino Shinobu (that I bought on release *u*).

Adapting  Blu-Ray/DVD covers into figures can be a great idea, the Bakemonogatari line up was quite succesful as a whole, but sometimes it works less good, which can partially be said about the Mahou Shoujo Madoka★Magica figures, who stayed a little behind the expectations.

After just one month in between, it is already time for a new preorder post, in the last few weeks several manufactures announced their latest  and upcoming figures that were shown at the last Wonder Festival. It was hard to choose, this time I added some longer awaited figures to my list.

Recently announced figures I find partially interesting (not ordered)

Estellise Sidos Heurassein – ALTER

Hehe look at this adorable strawberry milk drops, isn’t she jjust adorable with her charming smile. I don’t know her game, but Im quite enchanted by this figure, her face is already quite nice, but also her outfit is simply beautiful. The figure comes with landscape like base and a chibi figure of Estellise. I should actually consider to get this charming beauty.

Saten Ruiko – Chara Ani / Toy’s Works

This figure of Saten is enchanting … and here my manufacturer prejudices sense kicks in.

 Nyaruko – Max Factory

I love Haiyore! Nyaruko-san and I like Nyaruko as character, but my natural “naked apron” aversion prevents me from iordering this figure. Even though the frills are very cute.

Ishikki Akane – GSC

I was sure to get her, after I’ve seen her unpainted at Wonfes, despite her silly origin XD Now that I look at it something is missing, I can’t say what, can you say whats wrong with Akane?

Mamiya Marie – FREEing / Dragon Toys

Milf anyone? What are you saying Wieselhead don’t use such lewd words here that might scare the audience X<. Well, forgetting about her fetish origin Starless, Marie is a very attractive figure, portraying an adult woman. She has great curves, obviously, but the part I like the most is her beautiful face. Marie is scaled 1/6 but on the downside she costs 13.400 Yen, literally too much.

Hasegawa Kobato – Kotobukiya

This one isn’t up for preorders at the moment, but definetely something I consider to get. Kobato is the archetype of a cute goth loli and I like what Koto did with her, the face is cute and the dress looks lovely. I also think that the chair is a cool accessory/base. Kobato get.

Kashiwazaki Sena – Aoshima

Ah GK adaptions my secret love, GK always feel much more inspired than popular PVC figures. Aoshima got the rights for one of Sena’s best GK, Aoshima who also makes diecast kits of cool Japanes cars, recently found their love for girls. I want to give them a chance when this Sena is up for preorders soon. On the pictures so far she seems to be promising.

The False Songstress – Sheryl Nome – Max Factory

Thats a pretty much elaborate sculpt of Sheryl Nome, with an artistic diorama base and a very detailed sculpting of the character. Im sure that Max Factory will deliver a fantastic figure, but I don’t like Sheryl enough to spend around 16000 Yen for this figure.

Oda Yae – Daiki Kougyou

She’s pretty nude *huh* ? I can’t help myself, but I like her healthy proportions and her wide face with this cute expression. Displaying her like that would be rather troublesome, I actually could try to give her some clothes, but Im not if it’s worth the trouble to begin with.

What I actually ordered instead.

Maeda Keiji – ALTER / Hobby Japan

Lets start this post with a BANG! This is the figure of Maeda Keiji from the action – comedy anime Hyakka Ryouran. Maeda is a Hobby Japan Exclusive, the order period  is  from 2013/4 till 2013/6/.  She was sculpted by Tanaka Sen’u who already made a number of nice figures.
The figure grabbed my attention as I’ve seen her illustration in the Wonfes Wishlist Winter 2013 post at Plastic Parfait.  I thought it would be something worth to keep an eye on.

A few days ago her painted prototype was revealed and I totally love how the figure turned out, her colorful outfit is great and the upbeat looking face is lovely, the Nitro+ style is very well recreated on this figure. I also like the amount of revealed, sexy skin and the huge umbrella.

Maeda Keiji is scaled 1/8 (280mm) and her release is planned for September this year.

Super Sonico PKG ver. – Orchid Seed

It got a bit silent in terms of announced Super Sonico figures that I want to have, but Orchid Seed came to my rescue and announced the imo best Sonico figure ever! Yeah Im pretty much excited about this one. Since she was a grey prototype, I waited impatiently to order her.
Im happy about nice and new figures of this cute and curvy, pink haired girl, called Sonico.

PKG is no nameplay on a popular manufacturer of headphones, it stands for Sonicomi Package version. The figure is based on the illustration of the Sonicomi game manual the swimsuit with stockings and heavy boots is an unusual yet nice creation. I like that Sonico is standing up.

This figure shows her in a rather chilled way which is quite nice in my opinion, after all the flustered and happy faces. The Sonico PKG figure is scaled in a not very common 1/5 with
330 mm she will be a rather tall figure. The release is sheduled for December 2013. ♡(>◡<)♡

Alleyne – Queen’s Blade – Orchid Seed

A 1/6 scaled Queen’s Blade figure from a Company known for great body sculpting, count me in. Swimsuit figures are nice when put into interesting poses that differs  from the hundreds of other swimsuit girls. Alleyne looks a bit like she’s annoyed by her wet hair. I have a weak spot for pointy ear elf girls and this one also has cute, flushed cheeks and an overall pretty face.

The leaf bikini of this figure looks rather interesting, the contrast between skintone and green is very nice. In case someone wants to see whats below, the figure is also completely castoffable.

1/6 is a nice scale for such a  figure, 270 mm of appealing and flushed elf service *Wafuuu*. Nevertheless the release is far away, I actually have to wait for the release date until January 2014, on the other hand it’s good that Alleyne  isn’t part of my figure budget of 2013.

Kanbaru Suruga – Bakemonogatari – GSC

Finally! Finally !!! I didn’t get my hands on this figure as she could be preordered, but in the end I got her from a nice MFC member in an unopened state, for a higher price than on release of course. Why can’t I sell my figure like that? Im probably too impatient to wait for “victims”.

Anyway the fgure arrived a few days ago and she looks really cool with her booktowers base and michievous smile. Im happy to have her and looking forward to take pictures of Kanbaru.

On a sidenote I hated her character with passion in the anime, but only at first. For the rest of the show and the second season she really grow on me, and turned into one of my favorite Bakemonogatari characters. With Shinobu and Kanbaru I now have the Bakemonogatari figures from GSC that I’ve wanted. Too bad they made no figure of Araragi so far.

Mission accomplished!

Haruka Amami –  Cu-Poche – Idolm@ster – Kotobukiya

I already mentioned this one in the New Preorders part 15 post, but after I’ve seen pictures like here, I definetely wanted to get her. Due to high demand the figure was restocked and I secured my order instantly. A Cu Poche is something like a Nendoroid sized action- figure with doll joints and mangnetic feet. I never was a fan of posing Nendoroids, maybe it will be a bit more comfortable with this adorable and cute looking Haruka from Kotobukiya.

The Delays

Due to some delayed figures I could sqeeze two more orders into the already full April. The Delays were rather unwanted ones, even though the overall sum of figure purchases in April decreased because of it . Man I really wanted my Akari in April, but ALTER seems to have a few problems with their production facilities and pushed her back to summer. Akari included they nearly delayed all of their announced figures for the next few months. Prism Illya was only delayed by one month.

Which figures from my listed items, have you ordered ?

sorry all vote plugins are bullying me!

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Today I’ll let down my pants, only in the figurative sense, of course

Inspired by Adam’s Figure Financials posts I decided that I wanted to create something similar by the end of this year. I’m fully aware that a detailed look at the figure expenses of this year might be a shocking experience, but join me  and face the ugly truth in this post.

Let’s take a look at the things I’ve bought this year, overall it were 27 figures that I’ve purchased and received this year, 1 less compared to 2011. Since I already sold 2 figures I end up with a number of overall 25 collected figures in 2012, it was one of my goals to stay under 28 figures.

monthly figure expenses

In the diagram below every bar shows what I’ve spent each month, surprisingly I ordered nothing in February and May. With 4 figures, I kind of overdid it in June and October, it were expensive months, but this also partially happened because of unforeseen events. In November I also ordered 4 figures, but these figure were from the aftermarket and comparatively cheap.

I won’t write down the entire sum I’ve spent this year, it would be a too big shock for me XD

manufacturer appointments

It looks like I chose ALTER for most of my purchases, their figures really caught my interest even some older figures from them. Surprisingly GSC, which I really can’t stand or better said it’s the constant hype about their products. Anyway I went out of my way and ordered four of their figures, I really like Sayaka and Shinobu. I also got really nice figures from Max Factory.
For some reason I only ordered 3 (4) Orchid Seed figures, maybe that will change in 2013.

I also tried different companies, that I’ve never bought from before, like Alpha Max, Native, Daiki Kougyou, PLUM, Phat Company and Volks who will relase their Nagisa figure soon. Unlike my bad experience with Griffon, these companies provided solid quality and very good figures.

Shop appointments

new exclusive and old figures comparison

Aside from 15 new figures, I bought 5 Exclusive figures (Sonico – Bath Time version,
Noel Vermillion, Miku Hatsune – Cheerful Japan, the Sonico Nendoroid and Nagisa).
The 7 old figures were Max Factories Tamaki Kousaka and Haruhi Suzumiya Gekisou version, Echidna from Megahouse. From ALTER I ordered the Louise Francoise – school uniform version, Fate/Hollow Ataraxia – Saber Maid R and non R version and Fauna at last.

I spent a lot for the Tamaki figure, but in other cases there were a number of significant price drops at Mandarake and AmiAmi preowned in this year, these prices were so low that I couldn’t resist these figures I always was slightly interested in. Asida from Echidna, who had a stained butt (it wasn’t me XD) I made no bad experiences with these aftermarket figures.

additional costs

When looking a these numbers I’m quite surprised that the custom fees only take ten percent of the spent budget, hehe four times my packages weren’t charged. 17 percent for shipping also appears lower than expected, this year I used more SAL shipping and domestic shipping, when more figures arrive in one month it makes no sense to use EMS for all orders. I used EMS 11 times, SAL 12 times and domestic shipping for local shops was used 4 times.

favorite figures of the year

Ok, enough of these dry statistics lets end this post with my personal favorites of the figures I’ve purchased this year this year.

Bakemonogatari – Oshino Shinobu (Good Smile Company)

This was my first GSC figure that I actually like a lot. The donut eating loli vampire Shinobu from Bakemonogatari was very well recreated in this figure, be it the adorable and cute face, the petite appearance of her body. Also the outfit with the cool motorcycle helmet and the light looking summer dress are also a convincing part of her. While not being sculpted perfectly sharp, the donut bed like base with it’s overload of details is a nice addition to the figure.

Another nice detail is that she can be taken off her base and be placed nearly everywhere.

Ikki Tousen Xtreme Xecutor – Kan’u Unchou (Daiki Kougyou)

I saw, drooled in excitement and ordered ^^. This figure appeared convincing for me from the day she was announced. I like Ikki Toussen quite a bit, but I never bought a figure of it before.

With this figure Daiki came especially close to my image of Kanu. Her powerful fighting pose and the well trained, attractive body were quite appealing. The figure of Kanu has a kinda angry determined face expression, while I prefer cute expressions in general, I was fascinated by the look of this figure. As my first experience with Daiki Kougyou, Im quite satisfied with their work. The sculpting and the painting on clothes and figure turned out very well

Soukou Akki Muramasa – Sansei Muramasa – Maid (Max Factory)

This was quite maid year in terms of figures for me, but Sansei Muramasa throned above all of them. I was interested in her since a certain Wonfes a few years ago. I am totally happy that I was convinced to get her in the end. Her appearance of a grown up and very attractive dark skinned elf is really enchanting. Muramasa has a beautiful face, the eyes are very expressive and also the unique combination of a slightly embarrassed and pouting  face expression are nice.

Her dress is lovely with the detailed ruffles and also the color combination of cream white and silky shine black a quite classy, elaborate look is created. The figure also offers a cool looking base with red floor and a pretty table where parts of the included coffee dishes can be placed.

Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai – Takayama Maria (Max Factory)

Im still not a fan the Maria character, but she’s cute loli anyway. As image for the sculpting and painting Max Factory relied on the illustrator of the Novels, Buriki who has a quite unique style.
I really love how the face of this figure was adapted, she has super detailed eyes, blush marks and a cute open mouth with a sharp little fang. This Maria Takayama is a high quality figure with great looking body sculpting and an overall lively and playful appearance.

The dress is a little odd for a figure of a young girl, but is is very well done with pretty gloss and detailed shading effects. With a happy Maria inside the dress actually looks more cute than lewd.

To Heart 2 – Kousaka Tamaki – (Max Factory AquaPlus)

I saw this figure in the past, but in this year I noticed how appealing this figure actually is and was searching on the aftermarket. friend on MFC helped me and so I got my Tamaki Kousaka.

Not a cheap deal, but it was worth every cent. She looks a little different compared to her visual novel and anime origin, but in this case that is nothing bad.  On her fluffy, round base Tamaki radiates a romantic, cozy atmosphere what is quite charming in my eyes. The long red hair is pretty, the round face with the big eyes, rosy cheeks and the gentle smile on her mouth is really enchanting. The combination of a quite innocent appearance and an attractive curvy body works very well with this figure. Overall, the sculpting and paintjob of her are really top notch.

I still think that her boobs are too big, but with a cute face like this I accept this “minor” detail ;D

Nitro Super Sonic – Sonico –  Bath Time version (Native)

This was my first figure from Native actually, more importantly is that she’s a huge 1/6 scaled Sonico. I liked the creativity of pose and base a lot, these three little bathing friends are really cute accessories. The figure also has a very detailed and convincing face expression. I also like that they added more meat to this sculpt of Sonico like the Tsuji Santa artstyle always implies.

The figure can be displayed naked, not to the extent of most Native figures, but in my opinion  she looks best with one of her towels applied.Minor flaws are too faint blush marks and a  not that sexy looking butt, but nevertheless she is without question one of the best Sonico figures so far with the  Sonico – Bondage version from Orchid Seed following close afterwards.

Senran Kagura – Hibari (Phat Company)

I was quite happy as the cute GK of Hibari was quickly adapted to be turned into a PVC figure.
I didn’t had that much trust into Phat Company to begin with. But after unpacking her I was very much delighted, she looked very well done and came without major flaws. I love the cheerful face of Hibari with her flower eyes and the happy open mouth. I also liked her busty schoolgirl appearance dressed up in cute sportswear, like the jersey and the short bloomers that accentuates her meaty thighs. Her loose socks and the shoes are also a very cool detail.

Since I awaited this figure from Phat Company with lowered expectations my joy about her very good quality and looks were kinda amplified and Im still very happy about her purchase.

Do you have favorite figures from the ones you’ve bought?

Final Words

So far I always planned my purchases on a monthly basis, so that I won’t overstep my budget, in this post it was  interesting to take a look at the overall purchases of my figure hobby in this year. It appears like a lot of money and it probably is, but the truth is that there were more nice and pretty figures that I wanted to get n 2012, but I wanted to show at least a little retention.

Next year will be full of nice figures as well and I already preordered a few things, but lets see what and how many figures I will add to my next orders.

And you, Do you take a look back at your purchases and expenses of this year?

I there anyone who spent more? please let me know.

Today I will talk about Shinobu from Good Smile Company, as you might know she is based on the Bakemonogatari anime/light novel, some people still haven’t watched it, how weird ;p

Bakemonogatari was well received by the audience and manufacturer GSC turned all of the 6 heroines of the show into 1/8 scaled figures, they were all based on the Blu Ray/DVD front cover illustrations. Other Companies like Kotobukiya or ALTER also made nice figures of that franchise, but from my impression Good Smile Company offered the better looking figures, overall. I was tempted to buy the figure of Kanbaru, but I was doomed by the sold out tag, actually I wanted to wait for a price discount. Unfortunately that never happened.

A few more months ago a prototype of Shinobu was shown at Wonderfestival. I really liked the cute appearance of her sitting on a donut pile with a motorcycle helmet. I waited for pre orders being opened, her price was quite good and I better not wait for the sold out curse.

For this shooting I wanted to recreate something like in this illustration and did some arts and crafts, I bought a cheap medium density fiberboard and cutted out an rectangular shape, I used some adhesive tape to cover the holes in the board and sprayed everything with grey to get the run- down cram school look, the other props were already in my posession so I was good to go.

I wanted to test my newly aquired wireless PixelKing TTL flash trigger and so I didn’t use my 60×40 softbox lamp this time, instead of that I’ve used a combination of natural light, my now wireless external flash and my little automatic slave flash. It worked surprisingly well for a noob.

Anyway in Bakemonogatari, Shinobu is a cute little vampire girl, she was a grown up vampire lady before, but she was somehow turned into a small girl, the story about the true reason behind it will be revealed in Kizumonogatari. Being turned into loli might be a reason for her mainly gloomy and bored appearance in Bakemonogatari, she didn’t even talk in any episode.

The reason for buying this figure was actually based on the design than my liking towards the character. In the Nisemonogatari adaption of the Monogatari novels, it seems Shinobu got used to her new self and cheered up, it was a big surprise as she started talking, she’s naughty, but enchanting at the same time. I hope GSC will make a figure of her like this in the future as well.

On top she is wearing this great vintage helmet with cool brown straps and a goggle part, painting and shading on it are top notch, as little extra you can take it off. Beneath you see her long blonde hair, the tips have a interesting comic banana look, the strands and bangs in her face are clean and detailed and show some sublime orange shading.

The face of Shinobu turned out very nice it’s really cute how her eyebrows shine through her bangs. She also has beautiful detailed eyes, BUT the fact that the figure is based on the Blu Ray DVD front cover illustration  she differs to her appearance in the anime. The eyes are red instead of a gold yellow tone. In the anime they gold/yellow all the time, I’ve checked this to be sure.

On her cheeks she has rosy marks which give the face a very lively expression, have you also noticed her spiky ears kawaii! The face is overall very well recreated. In her mouth she has a soggy donut. Good Smile Company also created a little extra here, the donut comes off, but it leaves no silly looking gap, there is a fully sculpted mouth with upper front teeth lines behind it. That way she looks a bit like “Hau Hau buy me donuts, my master!”

Shinobu is wearing a light pink summer dress with a white petticoat inside. The fit and sculpting of it are nothing less than great, the shading on it is also great, I’ve never seen such a realistic looking shading on a dress before, it looks really pretty. Shinobu also has a little bit erotic going on with dress and the ribbon hanging down between her legs. Some people proofed (R18) that the dress is castoffable with some force, but the mere thought of it is just wrong in my eyes XD

As to be expected from a 1/8 scaled loli figure, Shinobu is small if not even tiny, but she’s very detailed nevertheless, the little toes and fingers have sculpted nails. In the right hand she is holding a donut, which can be turned a bit in her hand. Her pose is also very well done with her arms placed backwards and the bent legs sitting, she looks good from many angles.

Hahaha you are probably wondering where I hid the pictures with Shinobu and her base, but rest assured there is also a base included and some pics are below this block. As I’ve mentioned earlier the base is a pile of donuts on close view the shading on it looks a bit blurry, somehow like donut mud, but overall it looks good. As last figure from the Bakemonogatari anime (I doubt that GSC will ever make a Araragi figure, unfortunately) it is very fitting that traits of all the characters are incorporated next to the donuts. There is Araragi‘s hair with a stapler at his ahoge and the fried egg hairclips from his sisters, Hanekawa‘s cat ears and glasses, the bandage arm of Kanbaru, Hachikuji’s backpack and Oshino‘s shoe , but I can’t remember the yellow flower?

Final Words

Well, what should I say, I think I never had so much fun with photographing a figure from Good Smile Company before, ok I don’t own that many figures from them to tell you the truth, but anyway this was a convincing figure for me and I’m very satisfied with the final product. Shinobu is a great figure in a cute yet cool looking dress, everything on her is done in a very detailed way.

The base has an interesting design and the opportunity to display her in different places, without her base is a nice gimmick as well as the helmet and donut in her mouth which can be taken off.

At first I only bought her for the cute and interesting design, but after watching Nisemonogatari I even found a liking to her character, which increases the value of the figure for me in this case.

Another (sweet) english review can be found at neathgrim and a japanese one at figuephoto2

f

Hello Kitty to Issho – Vocaloid – Nekomura Iroha

This is not the little sister of Megaman, Nekomura Iroha is an advanced Vocaloid synthesizer, but I never heard of her before, even though there are a few song of her on youtube. She is made by Griffon Enterprise and will have a height of 17,5 cm. The release is in November of this year.

What first met my eye were the creative design and the very cute appearance of this figure. I really like the tight, red shinobi styled dress, the speaker gloves and the shiny helmet. Nekomura has a nice petite body and her cute face with the friendly big mouth are also quite enchanting.

Aizawa Nao – Comic Aun 2008 Cover Illustration

Here we have Aizawa Nao from Orchid Seed, she is scaled 1/7 and her release date is this November as well. This figure was announced earlier this year, but I admit that she didn’t convince me with the early promo pictures of her, the lighting is pretty bad, but some days ago I saw a picture of this figure as a final sample on Orchid Seeds blog. From what I’ve seen there, I decided to place my order for her. I love her pretty face with the bright and piercing eyes and the red brownish hair. Her pose is quite interesting and I like the fancy Halloween style outfit a lot. She will great next to my other 1/7 scaled figures Sonikoand Menace. As to be expected from an Orchid Seed figure there are 2 castoff options, I prefer the one without cape, but with bra.

Soniko Bondage version “Candy Pink”

This figure is also from Orchid Seed and scaled 1/7, her release date is in January 2012.
I already have the black color version of this figure and I’m not the person who buys the “same” figure twice, but of course for my beloved Soniko I make an exception :D. This new color version features a nice combination of baby blue, white and pink. In private I also hope the new version will have more prominent blush marks than my other one with the black outfit. Maybe I’ll sell the version I like less later, but for once I’m planning to display both of them together.

Choco*Ochi, Super Sonico Collection x Mota

Concealed behind this strange title is a set of three different chibi figures of Soniko, they are produced by Orchid Seed and will have a size of 8 cm. This set will be released in February 2012 and contains a casual dressed Soniko with guitar, a naked apron Soniko and a Soniko cosplaying as Al Azif. You can exchange some parts of them like the face for example.

Oshino Shinobu

So far Good Smile Company made  nice figures from the popular Bakemonogatari franchise.
Aside from their Hachikuji Mayoi, I was partially interested in all of them, but there always was a small part inside of me who made me pass in the end, sorry Kanbaru and Hanekawa. But I instantly fell for their Oshino Shinobu, she is scaled 1/8 and will be release in March 2012.

This Shinobu figure is sculpted after the illustration of the BluRay cover. The base looks very creative with the donuts and the parts that belong to the other characters from this anime.
Shinobu herself looks very cute, with the beautiful red eyes and the soggy donut in her mouth, she also has this lovely light dress and the helmet is also a very cool item, it can be taken off btw.

I will probably order the Black Hanekawa figure from ALTER, but so far I couldn’t bring myself to place another order. I also would like to order Naoe Kanetsugu, Ichijou Ayane and Astraea.
I don’t trust Kaitendo enough to pay so much for Ayane and Astraea will probably go on sale.

And like always my updated Preorder Roadmap from November till March.

Im really looking forward to receive the lovely 1/6 scaled Asuka from Max Factory next month!

related post
New Preorders part 8
New Preorders part 7
New Preorders part 6
New Preorders part 5
New Preorders part 4
New Preorders part 3
New Preorders part 2
New Preorders part 1

Hi there Im here again after 18 days of abstinence, september was an empty month in terms of figures. Today I will present you one of my rare figma reviews. It’s old news that Im no big figma collector, but when I really like a certain figma, I won’t hesitate to buy it. So here we have figma number 105, Hachikuji Mayoi from the ultra cool Bakemonogatari universe. I aways liked her funny, lively and cute character in this anime and I already bought a scaled figure of her.
This figma was made by Max Factory, as elementary schoolgirl she only measures 12cm ^-^

sitting on my new 70mm lens – isn’t she lovely

Hachikuji Mayoi has many accessoires in her box, aside from the obligatory three faces, the set of hands and the figma base, there are also parts included like the backpack, an closed umbrella, an open umbrella and a second lower body called “shiftbody” which puts her into a cower pose.

Impressions

Hachikuji wears her normal school uniform, sculpting and painting on it are very accurate, it resembles the look from the anime very well, especially the friendly face with the open eyes is great. Honestly, the face with it’s deep eyes, the lovely blushmarks as well the typical for Max Factory black lined mouth give Hachikuji Mayoi a nicely detailed and lively appearance.

Also other details like the hairband, the green ribbons, the bracelet, the cherry on her skirt, the band aid and even the snail pattern under her shoes are accurately based on her character. The backpack also has all the details we know from the show, there a small straps where Hachikuji can put her arms through, at the inside is a moveable peg who fits into the back of the figma.

The posing ability is very good, the joints stay in place after being put into position. Because of the small size, the joints don’t stick out too much. A funny part are the ball jointed twintails^^. Everything is very tiny, I was a bit scared of breaking something, please handle her with care.

You can display Hachikuji with or without the backpack, it is quite heavy and so you need to use the base, or the figma will fall over. There are two holes where the figma base can be put into.

uaaah! my bag

muhaha now I steal your homework

Not so fast! I’ll teach you a lesson!

F*** Im screwed TT

Hachikuji says “Who fights can lose. Who does not fight has already lost”

cheap FX

You can have a lot of fun with the Hachikuji Mayoi figma, the different kinds of accessoires gives you a lot of stuff to play around with, the open umbrella for example is a beautiful item, it looks so adorable when she is holding it, you can also use it with other figmas like Shizuno Izumi.

Final Words

Max Factory delivered another great figma, in my eyes it’s one of the best ones :D. The level of detail at such a tiny 12cm figma are remarkable. The posing works well like with most other figmas, but the small size increases the cuteness of this one. The included accessories will give you a lot of display possibilities, the umbrella and the “shiftbody” parts are my personal favorites.

If you like figma and Hachikuji Mayoi you should get your copy, even if you are not into figma I would recommend to get her, you don’t have to play with her, just put her into a cute pose and let her be. The only understandable reason not to buy her would be in case you dislike Hachikuji.

thx for reading, this time it was shorter than usual, I hope you don’t mind.
next time I will give you my impression about the shows of anime summer season 2011.

Hello, today I have a figure review of Kotobukiya’s Mayoi Hachikuji. Mayoi Hachikuji is an 1/8 scaled figure with a height of 180mm, the figure was released by Kotobukiya in November.

Mayoi Hachikuji is a character from the popular anime Bakemonogatari and in my humble opinion an awesome anime from SHAFT which I already watched two times, its great.

The figure is sculpted after the illustration from the opening theme of the Hachikuji story.

As Kotobukiya announced their Mayoi Hachikuji figure and showed the first prototype pictures which looked quite promising I was fired up about this figure. While the attention of the fans was mainly drawn torwards Hitagi Senjougahara, I can understand the point why she is so popular, Hitagi is attractive and has a cool personality, but I never was a big fan of her, next to Koyomi Araragi and Suruga Kanbaru, Mayoi Hachikuji was one of my favorite characters.

So here are some small background infos about her character

Ten years ago Mayoi was a 5th grade elementary school girl. Her parents got divorced and Mayoi lived together with her father, someday she missed her mum and went out to search for her.

In the show she was cute and funny and also acted a bit tough sometimes, her fight scenes with Koyomi were hilarious, maybe another reason why I liked her character was that I liked snails a lot in my childhood I really like how they combined the look of a cute schoolgirl and a snail with twintails as feelers, a huge backpack as snail shell and the snail like mouth.

So lets head over to the review part

On first look this figure resembles Mayoi Hachikuji very well, the twintails, her face, her body proportions as well as the look of her nice dress really look like in the anime, one exception is the color of her dress, in the anime her skirt is dark blue, but there also was an illustration of her with a wine red colored skirt on the DVD cover. I don’t know why they decided to pick the other color in the end, but if you ask me I prefer the wine red color.

In comparison with other 1/8 scaled figures Mayoi is on the bigger side, her head is huge and in fact she looks strange next to my other figures figures of that scale, she looks better when she’s placed next to 1/7 scaled figures. In general when producing a whole figure line manufacturers should pay more attention to the scale of all the figures so that they look good when placed together instead of scaling them indifferently.

The area around her nice red eyes looks pretty accurate, underneath she has light blush marks on her cheeks, what I also really like is her snail like mouth. Her hair is sculpted very nicely, with the bangs and the short sideburns her hairstyle appears very lively, the long  twintails with the twisted strands are also looking very good.

The visual trademark of Hachikuji is the big backpack at her back. The backpack has a leather like texture and shows some very good color shading. It looks nice and detailed, the white outlines are adding a nice contrast to the pink backpack. There are pockets and playful stuff on the sides which elementary school students would like . On the left side there is a patch with her class and name written on it and a paw comes out under the cover at the top.

snail shoe

The small details on this figure, like the star on her blouse, the cherry print on her skirt and the green transparent bracelet on her arm are nice. The white short sleeved blouse has pretty sculpted seam lines and wrinkles. Her panties are also sculpted very detailed, but I hope you understand that Im not that interested in peeking under the skirts of elementary school girls =D

If you want to take a look please visit the linked reviews at the end of this post.

Her pose appears very dynamik, like she is strolling around twinkle-toed after the school day has ended, her hands are holding the belts of her heavy backpack. The flow of the skirt is also nice to look at and fits according to her pose. Because of the angle, Mayoi is suited to be on display on higher places, she doesn’t look good from every angle because of that.

The paintjob looks very good, when you look very close some areas aren’t painted 100 % accurate,but from a normal distance this is hardly noticeable and so there isn’t much space for complains. Her base is desinged a bit simple, it is a clear round bas with a dark clear silhouette of a snail. The good news is that the base is very solid and supports the figure very well.

Initially I planned to make a shooting together with real snails but it’s winter now and the snails around here are hibernating in this season. So I had to do an indoor shooting, unfortunately the outcome of my shooting didn’t turn out like I expected, but at least some pics were useful enough for this review. I added some new pics from spring 2011 to this review.

I admit that Hachikuji doesn’t look very fancy in her outfit, in comparison with most of my other figures. I doubt that I would have ordered this figure if I had no knowledge about her origin, but nevertheless in my opinion Hachikuji is one of the more interesting school uniform figures.

Kotobukiya did a good job in putting the anime character Mayoi Hachikuji from Bakemonogatari into a good looking figure, sculpting and painting is very well done. I’m really satisfied with this figure. I paid 5,430 yen at AmiAmi so I think it was a fair deal. I would recommend this cute figure to fans of Mayoi Hachikuji and people who like girls in school uniforms, oh my god that sounds so wrong XD

other reviews of Mayoi can be found at

kaijin.akiba.coocan.jp
yotsubatofigure.net
they are only in japanese but the pictures should be enough

thx for watching see you next time

Hachikuji Mayoi

I always liked Hachikuji in the Anime Bakemonogatari and her snail like look
Kotobukiya made a nice sculpt out of her which resembles her character quite well

Manufacturer – Kotobukiya
Scale – 1/8
height – 180 mm
Release date is in November 2010

Dwarf

I have no knowledge about her origin Lineage II, but I think Dwarf is a very cute figure.
I like her look with her girly outfit and her twintails, the base and her bow are also very nice.
The cute and happy face is also my liking, it reminds me somehow of Saki from Eden of the East.

Manufacturer – Orchid Seed
Scale – Non Scale, 1/7
Height – 210mm
Release date is in December 2010

Takamachi Nanoha – Casual clothes version

Kotobukiya strikes again, I am no big fan of Nanoha’s character but putting that aside this figure was love on first sight. I own many figures with flashy outfits, but I always wanted a cute figure with casual clothes like this. So this Nanoha figure was an instant get for me.

Manufacturer – Kotobukiya
Scale – 1/8
height – 165mm
Release date is in January 2011

Creators Labo #028 Super Soniko Babydoll version – non DX

After I saw the gray prototype at Wonfes I’ve eagerly awaited an official anouncement from Yamato. Since there were two Versions of her I decided to order the cheaper one without the guitar,the bear and the fridge.I think I don’t need this stuff for 5000 Yen more.

Manufacturer – Yamato
Scale – Non Scale
height – 210mm
Release date is in February 2011